Golf shots? Not many on ESPN’s early U.S. Open coverage

We should have suspected something at 11 a.m. when we saw the program name “U.S. Open Extra.” ESPN has advertised U.S. Open coverage from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. (except the 3-5 p.m. window when NBC brings us the pictures), but the first two hours showed few golf shots.

That certainly was a disappointment to those who wanted to see the dream pairing of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson begin their rounds at 11:06 a.m. We got to see them and Adam Scott play the first hole, but most of “U.S. Open Extra” was a bunch of feature garbage. Regardless of how good the features were (seeing childhood pictures of Mickelson was interesting), we tune in to see golf shots.

By week’s end, we’ll have seen so many golf shots that these two hours will be forgotten, but I’ve already seen more of Tom Rinaldi than anyone should be subjected to.